– Mohammed Atherulla Shariff
Bengaluru, May 20: Beggar’s Free India Movement initiated by Bengaluru Hudugaru (Bengaluru Boys) is now a national movement spreading fast to other cities like Mumbai, Pune and Hyderabad.
Give beggars (food + water + clothes). But not a single rupee in cash.
If any person (female/ male/ old/ disabled/ child) is begging, give them (food + water) instead of money, but from today they should not beg for money, is the message being spread.
It is expected, as a result, at the international/national, state levels, gangs of ‘beggars’ will break up, and then child abduction will stop on its own. Promoters request people not to give a single rupee to a beggar. Keep biscuits in the car if you feel like it. But don’t pay cash.
The Karnataka Prohibition of Beggary Act, 1975, aimed to prohibit persons from resorting to begging and to provide for training and employment of beggars, and for the relief and rehabilitation of such persons, was amended three times, 1982, 1988 and 2003 to make it more effective. Shelter Homes are set up and several steps are undertaken to settle the able-bodied beggars in a dignified manner. The state social welfare department, which operates 14 shelters (Nirashrithara Parihara Kendras) to house beggars and other homeless people, has skilled 4,966 such persons, in five years.
They have been provided vocational training in agriculture, horticulture, readymade garments, weaving, mat making, file-making, etc. between April 2017 and March 2022.
In Mumbai, the issue of beggary was addressed by the government with the passage of The Bombay Prevention of Begging Act, 1959, and it was extended to the NCT of Delhi in 1960.
There are 11 Institutions for beggars in various parts of Delhi, which look after beggars as and when beggars are rounded up and sent to these homes. In addition to the regular Beggar court, two Mobile Beggar courts were started in 2009.
Since the legislative and regulative methods have not proved effective, let’s give a try to citizens’ initiative.
